Cleaning up the channelOne of the statements made after Janet Jackson's Super Bowl fiasco was that the outcry might provide the impetus to clean up some of the trash that has littered the airwaves for a few decades. Frankly, we were skeptical. Tawdry topics sell, and we expected the situation would only get worse, even though the NFL made something of a promise that it would never use MTV to produce Super Bowl halftime shows again. We might have been wrong. Let's ho...

Next exit: gas worriesGasoline prices in the River Valley are already back up to almost $1.60 a gallon for regular, a little under the national average. By summer, analysts say, prices could reach $2 a gallon. A few of the price prognosticators say the bill could top $3 a gallon in some areas. Even that probably won't be enough evidence to convince the people in corporate America and the Bush administration that we have a serious problem with rising demand and fall...

Don't dwell on the pastThe things that a young man does at the age of 18 or 19 should leave him with a well-earned sense of humility. For the most part, they shouldn't be millstones around his neck. Unfortunately, today's scandal-mongering partisans are looking for millstones. The military records of President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry have become millstones for those candidates. Bush is accused of being AWOL while serving in the National Guard. Kerry is ac...

It's the jobs, candidates!By Wesley Brown Arkansas News Bureau If the state of the nation's economy was the reason the elder George Bush lost the 1992 election to Bill Clinton, his son could be in re-election trouble over the more specific economic issue of jobs. George W. Bush's advisers would do well to remember the focus of Clinton's campaign, voiced repeatedly by Clinton adviser James Carville: "It's the economy, stupid." And while economic experts are in agreement...

A third path to recoveryIn looking for solutions to Russellville's financial crisis, the two most obvious paths are raising taxes or cutting services. Either will be painful, yet both may prove necessary. A third option has not yet received much attention. No, it isn't the Fire Department's plan to offer ambulance service in the city limits. We remain unconvinced that it will be either the promised cash cow for the city or can be done without reducing the present lev...

Budget fix won't be easy"Hi, my name is Russellville, and I have a spending problem." Maybe there really is a 12-step program somewhere for city governments. Mayors and aldermen could gather in a circle, sit in those hard folding chairs, confess their money woes and find support for mending their spending. If admitting a problem is the first step toward recovery, Mayor Raye Turner and the city of Russellville only have 11 steps left to go. At Thursday's council meeti...

Bin Laden's inspirationWhen Osama bin Laden began to create his plan to end civilization, where did he go for role models? For brazen, public incidents, Black September's attack on Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972 might be a good start. For murderous brutality, there's Carlos the Jackal. For persistence, he might have studied the IRA, at least before they started talking peace. But for unchallenged success in destroying a foe's economy and bringing ab...

Welcome back, JohnBy Phil Lamb editor@couriernews.com Unlike a certain other writer for this page, who shall remain nameless but whose initials are R(ick) F(ahr), I know nothing about golf. I can't tell a hook from a slice. I even get bogies and birdies mixed up (Blame it on watching the Maltese Falcon too many times.). No, my interest in golf comes solely from the players. Watching Tiger Woods' amazing rise to the top has been a pleasure (and it doesn't bother...

Schools plan new lawsuitsBy James Jefferson Arkansas' first statutory school consolidation law hasn't put an end to a year-long debate and appears likely to spark a new round of lawsuits. Since the Legislature voted to consolidate the administrations of school districts with fewer than 350 students, small-school administrators have been lining up support for a federal court challenge on equal protection grounds. Rural schools apparently can't depend on much support fr...

City Council can't say 'no'At times, it's hard to figure out whether the Russellville City Council takes more inspiration from Bush and Cheney or from Rogers and Hammerstein. Like the federal government, the city has a pattern of spending more money than it takes in. And like Ado Annie, the character in "Oklahoma," we're just a city who can't say no to spending. A year or two ago, the big worry was that the city's cash balance might drop below $400,000, which was descri...

Soldier's wife needs a handThose "support the troops" signs in our windows are starting to turn brown in the sun. No harm is done by that; the message itself is still clear. But what about the "support our troops" message in our hearts? Are we letting it fade? With the 1-206th Field Artillery finishing up its training at Fort Polk, La., and getting ready to ship out to Iraq, the families left behind need our support more than ever. We learned this week of one specific s...

Greenspan's warningThe independence of the Federal Reserve Board, the agency that sets monetary policy, has created a refreshing level of honesty and non-partisanship in government. That very honesty means that the administration and Congress should heed the warnings that the Fed chairman, Alan Greenspan, delivered this week. Greenspan was certainly not all gloom and doom. Inflation remains under control (he predicts a drop to 1.25 percent), unemployment should ...

Taking faith personallyBy Phil Lamb editor@couriernews.com The debate over Mel Gibson's interpretation of "The Passion of Christ" has finally been distilled down to the key question, posed by an article in the current Newsweek magazine: "Who killed Jesus?" Tempers have flared over the allegation that a line in the original script was anti-Semitic in that it appeared to place the blame for the execution of Jesus on all Jews, from the crucifixion right up to today. Fo...

A trainload of smilesThe Courier's Terry Krepel and Fred Gladdis will probably be grinning for another few weeks after getting to live out the childhood dream of just about every little boy and a high percentage of little girls. They got to ride in the cab of a steam locomotive. By the time they arrived in Van Buren, they had the flushed, sooty faces to prove it. The Union Pacific Challenger, a million-pound marvel of mid-20th century technology, drew onlookers at...

Arkansas divided over schoolsBy James Jefferson Two former justices will begin their evaluation of public education reform this week with opposing state views of whether the Legislature complied with a court edict to overhaul a school system deemed unconstitutional. The attorney general's office, representing the Legislature, will outline what lawmakers have done to comply with the Supreme Court's November 2002 order to provide equal educational opportunities for all scho...

Tax structure remains unfairThe largest tax increase in the history of Arkansas cleared the General Assembly on Friday and will become law without the governor's signature. The measure will raise $366 million in its first year, money that will be used in an attempt to meet the twin requirements of adequacy and equity in educating the state's children. The bulk of this money, all but $6 million of it, will come from increasing the state sales tax to 6 percent. Additional ...

Rooting out truth in IraqThe task of intelligence gathering is neither easy nor sure. Meaning must be gleaned from a flood of hints, rumors and suspicions; the intent of madmen must be divined, and then a course of action and response must be devised. Disasters await at every turn, whether from action or inaction. Worst of all, the recipient of an intelligence report stands in danger of hearing what he wants to hear. There can no longer be any denying that the intelli...

School kids need a brakeAll right, motorists, it's time to play a little word association game. You know how it works: We say "ice cream," you say "sundae." Ready? Here we go: "Stop sign." Very good, "stop" is a good association for that. "Red light." Good choice; "stop" is again the best response. "Big yellow school bus, stopped on the roadway, red lights flashing." What? No, we're sorry, but "gun it" is a very questionable response this time. It's one that might le...

Poor spellers get poorerIt should be a lesson for every student struggling through a grade school spelling lesson. Learning to write well and to spell well still counts for something, even in a high-tech, spell-check world. Just look at what's happening to poor spellers who list their goods on eBay. A recent New York Times article, researched and written by Diana Jean Schemo, turned up a crowd of people who are turning a tidy profit by searching for misspellings on i...

Pols spread credit, blameBy James Jefferson Gov. Mike Huckabee is not overly impressed with the Legislature's accomplishments during the longest Arkansas special session on record, and says what little has been done wouldn't have been done without him. "I realize that, had I not put forth a bold agenda more than a year ago and totally focused on getting it enacted, we wouldn't have had any major reforms," Huckabee responded to legislative leaders who had applauded the...